Committee Decisions

28 COM 14B.57

General Decision on the Evaluation Reports

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Considering that the quality of the Decisions of the Committee depends upon the quality, completeness and timeliness of the documentation and information provided by the States Parties and the Advisory Bodies,

2. Stressing that consideration of nominations is a key element of the Committee's work,

3. Decides that the following principles must guide the evaluations and presentations of ICOMOS and IUCN. The evaluations and presentations should:

a) adhere to the World HeritageConvention and the relevant Operational Guidelines and any additional policies set out by the Committee in their decisions,

b) be conducted to a consistent standard of professionalism,

c) comply to standard format, both for evaluations and presentations, to be agreed with the World Heritage Centre and include the name of the assessor(s) who conducted the site visit,

e) include references to Committee decisions and requests from the Committee concerning the nomination under consideration,

f) not take into account or include any information submitted by the State Party after 31 March in the year in which the nomination is considered. The State Party should be informed when information has arrived after the deadline and is not being taken into account in the evaluation. This deadline should be rigorously enforced,

g) include the approximate total cost of the evaluation process, including an estimation of voluntary input so that it is clear to Committee members,

4. Requests that ICOMOS and IUCN consider the resource implications of evaluating Tentative Lists and provide feedback at the 7th extraordinary session to States Parties on the proposals in terms of their potential to meet the benchmark of "outstanding universal value" and their ability to contribute to representativity of the World Heritage List. The Advisory Bodies are requested to report on these resource implications at the 7th extraordinary session of the World Heritage Committee;

5. Also requeststhe World Heritage Centre to :

a) inform the State Party within 30 days of receipt of a Nomination Document whether it is considered complete and whether it has been received in accordance with the timetable set out in the Article 65 of the Operational Guidelines (2002),

b) ensure that no nomination is forwarded to ICOMOS or IUCN for evaluation unless it is complete according to the Operational Guidelines and as noted in Committee decision 6 EXTCOM 7,

c) develop a mechanism in consultation with the Advisory Bodies for factual checking of their evaluation reports by the State Party,

d) ensure that the documents are distributed, in both working languages, at least six weeks before the start of the meeting in accordance with the Rules of Procedure,

e) provide to each ordinary session of the Committee a list of the nominations received and those that have been transmitted to the Advisory Bodies as complete, as requested by the Committee in its decision 26 COM 14;

6. Decides to develop a mechanism to ensure that the State Party has an opportunity to correct what they consider to be factual errors made during the presentation of their nomination;

7. Requests the Legal Adviser to study the legal implications of a rule restricting Committee members from proposing a site during their mandate whether or not an exemption is made for Committee Members with no site on the World Heritage List;

8. Reinforces the need for the Committee to be satisfied that the nominations meet all the necessary conditions as set out in the Operational Guidelines before it is inscribed on the World Heritage List and the need to maintain the credibility of the World Heritage List;

9. Requests the Director General to provide adequate resources for the functioning of the Secretariat and to ensure that those resources are allocated to the core activities of the Committee's work;

10. Decides to consider at its next session means of ensuring that adequate resources are provided for the functioning of the Advisory Bodies.